§ Mr. WrayTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will take urgent steps to assist in the holding of an international conference on deforestation and the destruction of the ozone layer; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MoynihanThe Department does not consider an international conference to be the most immediately effective way to evaluate recent theories that tropical forest burning may influence the ozone layer. The Montreal protocol on substances which deplete the ozone layer requires that scientific evidence be reassessed before the first review of measures in 1990 and the Department will ensure that the effect of tropical forest burning will be included in that assessment. In addition, I have asked the Department's expert advisory body, the stratospheric ozone review group, to comment on the hypothesis in their next report to the Department, expected this autumn.